Scotts of Thrapston
in Northamptonshire have 95 years' expertise in the equestrian and garden
buildings sector but recently decided to try and break into the education
sector by supplying modular classroom buildings.

They specified 153 of
fermacell's 1200mm x 2400mm x 12.5mm boards for their first such project,
Weldon Church of England Primary School, in their home county, and have not
looked back since, also using fermacell for another school and an office
building.

The fermacell panels
were used to line the walls and ceilings of a £175,000 replacement for a
20-year-old modular building at Weldon in Corby, where pupil numbers have
doubled to 200+ in just over 40 years, and have been used throughout the
classroom, a group room, lobby, toilets and storeroom.

The 18.5m x 6.5m
building, which is also clad in timber and roofed in coated steel profiled
panels, was constructed as a flat pack over two weeks at Scotts' production
facility in Thrapston, then transported by truck to Weldon and erected by a
team of four men using an all-terrain fork lift truck in just six weeks during
term time.

Scotts estimate this
is just a fraction of the time it would have taken for a traditional bricks and
mortar build, saving contractors and therefore clients considerable amounts of
money and reducing reliance on good weather.

The new,
well-insulated building is more than double the size of its predecessor, which
even lacked running water, and makes use of full-length windows to maximise
natural daylight and reduce the school's reliance on artificial lighting.

The fermacell boards
have helped bring the new classroom into the 21st Century in other
ways too as a large new wipe board can be hung from the boards without recourse
to pattressing which is time consuming and more expensive in terms of materials
and labour.

Scotts' business
development manager Philip Goldstone said the fermacell boards were specified
by them for multiple reasons.

“Their density
helped from a structural engineers' point of view and their robustness provides
good impact resistance which is essential in this sector,” he said.

“From a fire
resistance point of view they have a good burn time and they are moisture
resistant. But probably most impressive is their racking ability. Their holding
strength is such that we don't have to do any reinforcing. The school can hang its
wipe boards and shelving without any damage occurring.”

He added: “The other
benefit we liked was that the fermacell boards didn't need skimming. We were
just able to join the boards and then paint them. The finish it gives was
perfectly acceptable.”

The company had become familiar with fermacell
over time but this was the first time they had used the boards.

Philip said: “We had
had some training from Fermacell so we knew what tools we would need and there
were no issues at all. We were perfectly happy working with it.”

They have now also
been used on the walls and ceilings at Sutton Benger primary school in
Chippenham, Wiltshire, which comprises classroom, lobby, storeroom and toilets,
and at stone supplier Digby Stone's new flagship offices in Halesowen, West
Midlands.